Criminal action over nuclear leak

The operators of the Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant in Cumbria are to face a criminal prosecution over the leak of tonnes of radioactive material.

Acid containing 20 tonnes of uranium and 160kg of plutonium spilled from a ruptured pipe into a sealed cell at the site’s Thorp complex.

The leak was discovered in April 2005, but investigators claimed it could have happened eight months earlier.